Acxiom Corp. is laying off more than 215 employees nationwide, sources familiar with the job cuts said Wednesday.
The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the layoffs occurred Tuesday and Wednesday and will continue today.
They said the layoffs were in various departments and offices, including in central Arkansas, Nashville, Tenn., and Downers Grove, Ill.
Ines Gutzmer, a spokesman for Acxiom, said she could not confirm the layoffs and said the company is continuing its plan to cut expenses, which it hopes to complete by the end of the quarter in late March.
“As communicated in our last earnings call, Acxiom has embarked upon an initiative to increase efficiencies and further improve performance,”she said in an emailed statement. “This is a company wide, multi-phased approach, and our goal is for all associated actions to be completed by end of this fiscal year. We are on track to meet this timeline, and we hope to provide an update as soon as the process is completed.”
Acxiom, a data broker, is primarily known for gathering data about masses of people and then selling the information to its clients to use in marketing campaigns.
The jobs cut this week were the third recent round of layoffs at Acxiom, the sources said.
Acxiom started laying off employees in November as part of the company’s plan to reduce expenses.
When Acxiom released its quarterly earnings report in November, the company said it planned “to reduce its annual cost base” by $20 million to $30 million in the next six to 12 months.
In its most recent financial report, released in January, Acxiom said it was “well underway on this initiative, and to date has taken steps to realize approximately $15 million in annualized cost reductions.”
“We are more than halfway through our delayering effort,” Warren Jenson, chief financial officer and executive vice president, said while talking about the company’s efforts to cut expenses during a Jan. 29 conference call. “Once that is completed, we are all about further simplification and standardization of our workflows.”
In August, Acxiom let go most of the marketing department at its headquarters in Little Rock, about 20 employees.
In the first nine months of Acxiom’s 2014 fiscal year, the company had restructuring charges and adjustments of $6.8 million.
Of that, $4.4 million was related to the termination of employees in the United States, Australia, China and Europe, according to a third-quarter report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
During Acxiom’s third quarter, which ended Dec. 31, the company reported a profit of $15.1 million, up from $14.5 million in the same period a year ago.
Shares of Acxiom rose 13 cents to close Wednesday at $37.58 on the Nasdaq exchange.
Business, Pages 25 on 02/27/2014